Alsa problems after a system upgrade

2k · 2006-09-23 12:13:58

Hi there,

the other day i did a system upgrade using pacman -Syu

now almost everything seems to be working ok, except alsa, when i run alsaconf i'm getting the error

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

i'm at a bit of a loss really
Mike

toxic · 2006-09-23 12:26:21

Have you tried alsamixer -c <card_number> ? If that works, then it's just a matter of what your default soundcard is, and can easily be changed in /etc/asound.conf of ~/.asoundrc.

However, if alsaconf itself doesn't work, then does it print any more precise output? Then there's always the aspect of trying your soundcard at all, does it react to "cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp" ? If it doesn't it my be a problem with your autodetection tool (hwd or similar).

2k · 2006-09-23 13:07:24

i'm not quite sure what you mean, i'm still very new to all this

when i run alsaconf it all seems to work until the end when i get this message

Loading driver...
:: Saving ALSA Levels                                                    [DONE]
:: Restoring ALSA Levels                                                 [DONE]
Setting default volumes...
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

please note that i have to scroll up to see this.

when i try and run alsamixer i get the following error

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

[/quote]

T-Dawg · 2006-09-23 13:22:31

did you allow it to write the alias in modprobe.conf?
Also note to use sound for a regular user you must add them to the audio group otherwise you'll get messages like you last one.

2k · 2006-09-23 13:33:41

my user is in the audio group

and the modprobe.conf looks like this

#
# /etc/modprobe.conf (for v2.6 kernels)
#

# OSS Compatibility
install snd-pcm modprobe -i snd-pcm ; modprobe snd-pcm-oss ; true
install snd-seq modprobe -i snd-seq ; modprobe snd-seq-oss ; true

install nvidia modprobe -i nvidia ; /etc/udev/scripts/create-nvidia-nodes.sh ; $

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.12 ---
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

T-Dawg · 2006-09-23 13:42:01

what does lspci |grep audio give you?

tpowa · 2006-09-23 13:50:45

it's stated in udev readme, remove old entries from modprobe.conf, they cause problems, OSS and ALSA entries just remove them

Mr Green · 2006-09-23 14:13:57

#
# /etc/modprobe.conf (for v2.6 kernels)
#

alias char-major-195* nvidia

#alias eth0 8139too
options kqemu major=0

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.12 ---
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not

p.s. here is mine.....

2k · 2006-09-23 14:27:40

here is what lspci |grep audio returns

00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 30)

2k · 2006-09-23 14:59:02

by commenting out the lines

install snd-pcm modprobe -i snd-pcm ; modprobe snd-pcm-oss ; true
install snd-seq modprobe -i snd-seq ; modprobe snd-seq-oss ; true

alsamixer now works, i still haven't got any sound but i'll try and sort that myself before asking for more help

thanks to everyone who's helped

Mike

tpowa · 2006-09-23 15:23:39

usage of alsaconf is not really recommended until you have very old hardware that needs to be detected, the rest is handled by udev

toxic · 2006-09-23 19:48:45

tpowa wrote:

usage of alsaconf is not really recommended until you have very old hardware that needs to be detected, the rest is handled by udev

It's not? I couldn't get my soundcard properly recognized, even with the correct modules loaded, before using alsaconf. Possibly that's just an evidence of my lack of knowledge in the matter.

T-Dawg · 2006-09-23 20:05:47

2k wrote:

here is what lspci |grep audio returns
00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 30)

maybe try disabling your onboard sound?

tpowa · 2006-09-24 11:30:13

@ toxic, well alsaconf is usefull for old ISA CARDS, newer ones should be fine loaded by udev anyway.
alsaconf can add stuff to modprobe.conf which mostly causes problems when upgrading to newer kernel versions.

Snarkout · 2006-09-24 16:47:38

Sound can be a lot of fun in linux, for sure. You shouldn't need alsaconf for an SBLive card - udev should handle it nicely. You've already commented out those two lines (why are they still there?) in modprobe.conf. You're on the right track. As has been said, disable your onboard sound in BIOS - this will most likely clear the issue up right away.

Verify that your mixer isn't set to zero or muted - you can use alsamixer for this, or whatever the native mixer app for your desktop is (kmix for kde, gmix for gnome). This used to be a common problem, but I think it's been resolved - still, check it out.

Also, if you have a "Digital Out" option, but you are using analog out, you almost always want that option set to off. I can't remember if this is even an option on SBLives, but it is on all Audigys that I've seen, and it causes people a lot of heartburn.

People praise soundblaster and linux, but honestly I've had a number of issues with the cards - not that they don't work, but they often don't work as expected.

Good luck!

Arch Linux

#1 2006-09-23 12:13:58

Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#2 2006-09-23 12:26:21

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#3 2006-09-23 13:07:24

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#4 2006-09-23 13:22:31

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#5 2006-09-23 13:33:41

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#6 2006-09-23 13:42:01

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#7 2006-09-23 13:50:45

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#8 2006-09-23 14:13:57

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#9 2006-09-23 14:27:40

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#10 2006-09-23 14:59:02

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#11 2006-09-23 15:23:39

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#12 2006-09-23 19:48:45

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#13 2006-09-23 20:05:47

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#14 2006-09-24 11:30:13

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

#15 2006-09-24 16:47:38

Re: Alsa problems after a system upgrade

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